YouTube is notorious for choking slower or underpowered computers (like netbooks), and all that video requires a lot of bandwidth. YouTube Feather is an opt-in beta that strips YouTube to the bare essentials for your underpowered PC or slow internet connection.

Feather seriously strips out the unnecessary elements from YouTube, leaving you with little beyond the video. (We'd read reports that it also meant you didn't have the option to view videos in high quality, but we've seen plenty of HQ videos in our Feather tests.) It loads fast so all your computer has to worry about is the video. There's not much more to say about it beyond that. It's an opt-in beta, so to give it a try you'll need to visit the opt-in page and click on the Join the "Feather" Beta link.

For our part, we rarely use the more advanced features of YouTube anyway, so the lightweight Feather feels great. Let's hear what you think in the comments. (If you've had problems with YouTube jumpiness in Firefox, this fix may help.)